Let's talk Transformation : The business leaders podcast #142 Holistic Transformation: Aligning People & AI for Success with Lindsay Phillips
"Holistic transformation is not just how are you implementing a piece of software, AI is a really good opportunity for us to start to explore this"
Lindsay and I have a rich conversation diving deep into holistic transformation, the impact of AI, and how to navigate change in today’s rapidly evolving world. Organisational change management is often deployed too late, which speaks in favour of taking a holistic approach to transformation and asking from the outset: How do people change? How do they view themselves and their work?
Digital transformation is not just about implementing new software but also about how people change their thinking. AI is an excellent example. To get actual value from it, individuals need to rethink their roles and personal value. It’s about micro and macro changes happening together.
It is as ever, centred around the inner work we need to do as leaders to ensure that we are mastering what keeps us human, as well as looking at challenging the status quo constantly. AI is changing business models and the way we work, causing some organisations to dispense with this ‘inner work’ and hoping AI will do it for them. Curiosity is key! If people aren’t curious, they won’t help identify risks or roadblocks.
We talked about how important it is to show up as ourselves, even in professional settings. We also discussed gender parity and how much more we need to do. Lindsey shared her strategy for dismantling stereotypes: present all facets and encourage others to do the same. The more people meet others who don’t fit their stereotypes, the more likely they are to abandon them.
How can we create the conditions for curiosity to be present, and for leaders to learn, unlearn and relearn to enable more holistic and sustainable change ?
The main insights you'll get from this episode are :
- Change must be internal first of all, as well as holistic, and also on a micro and macro level; AI is changing business models and the way we work, causing some organisations to dispense with the ‘inner work’ and hoping AI will do it for them.
- Yet 95% of AI pilots fail because it is not a plug n play solution – even companies that are taking an informed approach to AI have individual employees seeking their own tactical solutions.
- AI means that we must all be good prompt engineers to succeed in the future, but many people underestimate the learning and effort this requires, and want to jump straight to the productive output, skipping the hard work.
- It also demands organisational and individual buy-in, understanding how it changes people’s value proposition to the organisation and that they must redefine their inputs, outputs and added value, maybe redefining their identity.
- It is crucial at the beginning of a transformation project to understand where authority sits and how decisions are made – decision-makers must lead the process – and how much curiosity there is.
- A lack of curiosity is the biggest obstacle to change, and organisations must be open to different (external) perspectives and to pivoting mid-way through the project if necessary.
- A ‘levels of agreement’ exercise with the people involved can help to determine the way forward, seeing failure as a point of learning that is painful but productive – but overidentifying with a job makes it very difficult to fail.
- Particularly in the age of AI, we should try and separate ourselves from our jobs and find a working environment that suits us, where we can present multiple facets of ourselves to address bias and be authentic to elicit a positive response.
- Anxiety about a project is generally informed by something, which must be understood to move forward, away from fear and stagnation, and winning over those who are resistant in order for them to be included and invested.
- The onset of AI in the transformation sector saves time when researching companies and creating materials – this will change how work is priced, what the value proposition is and what the human value will be.
- More affordable services will be opened up to those outside the corporate sector, such as charities, and AI will make things accessible, democratise access, and change the quality of conversations.
- Context switching is a vital (consultant) skill that AI can help with, and we are all called upon to deepen our AI expertise as a tactical move, treating AI like a person and getting used to talking to it.
Find out more about Lindsay and her work here :